After a hectic opening day that took the Targa Tasmania field from Launceston to St Helens and back, day two of the epic rally was just a quick sprint around the streets of George Town.
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Anzac Day saw cars tackle the 4.79-kilometre stage in front of big crowds with Jason and John White extending their 16-second overall advantage by one second over the fellow Dodge Viper combination of Michael Pritchard and Gary Mourant.
Matt Close in third, was the fastest of the top contenders in his latest Porsche GT3, beating the Whites by three seconds.
“It’s still early days, but we’re really happy with where we are,” Close said.
“On the dry I’m massively comfortable with the car – it’s not too different to last year’s car, but just with a bit more grip, so if it’s dry, we’re happy to go hard at it.”
Jason said he is hoping for some wet roads for a while, which he believes can help him preserve his tyres.
“We love driving on these tyres in the dry, but they don’t just have a lot of life,” he said. “The car is good in the wet, so we won’t be disappointed with more rain.”
Jon Siddins was hugely impressive again, with the third fastest drive of the day in his 1970 Datsun 240Z, and moved up to fifth overall against the hotshot modern cars.
He leads classic GT by 1:44 from Mick Downey and Jarrod Van Den Akker who are in a 1977 Holden Torana.
Ben Manion sits in sixth and leads the GT4 class by 0.13 seconds over his class rival Trevor Macleod in a battle between the two Subaru WRXs.
Steve Glenney and co-driver Michael Potter, who had to withdraw from day one with a mechanical issue, showed what might have been, setting the equal fastest time. In Shannons Classic, Peter and Sari Ullrich in their 1963 Jensen CV8 have a 1:40 lead over Richard Woodward and Neil Gibson in their 1969 Holden Monaro GTS with David Gilliver and Nigel Shellshear just another second back in their 1979 Ferrari 308.
Other competition leaders remain unchanged after with Adam Kaplan and Aleshia Penney in a 2004 BMW M3 CSL leading in the early modern category and Jeff Morton and Dennis Neagle in a 2017 Lotus Exige already 1:28 clear in the GT Sports Trophy. Darryl and Peter Marshall in a 2002 Ford Falcon Ute have a 34-point buffer in the TSD Trophy class.
Targa moves to Burnie on Wednesday with eight stages, including two giant tests, the 38km Cethana and 36km Riana stages.
OVERALL TOP 5
- Jason White/John White
- Michael Pritchard/Gary Mourant +17s
- Matt Close/Cameron Reeves +34s
- Paul Stokell/Jenny Cole +1m15s
- Jon Siddins/Gina Siddins +1m22s